The Guest Post Theory For Marketing Your Music

Posted on 14 July 2010 by gregrollett

Writing Guest Posts For Music Marketing

I’m sure that you have noticed that over the past 2-3 weeks I haven’t been writing as much – but there is still a ton of new content at GYRS. I’ve had some great guest authors that range from artists to friends to industry professionals.

This is really some do what you preach type stuff. My biggest strategy for growth right now in my business as well as those of my clients has been to leverage OPA.

This is a tactic that I talk about in great length in the New Music Economy. I have also been able to lead discussions at Glazer-Kennedy events, Stompernet meetups and music industry events on how to leverage OPA to build an authentic audience - or one that actually wants to listen to whatever crap you are talking about.

OPA = Other People’s Audience.

By leveraging Other People’s Audience you are getting your voice heard by a built in group of followers. It’s the opposite of the Field of Dreams. If you are a new artist, no one is checking out your site. So why keep creating awesome content on a site that no one reads?

Put that content on a site that already has an audience and bring them back to your site – voluntarily! No spam, no trickery. If you deliver value, they will come. Thus allowing others to use my platform to get their message out.

Here are the recent posts that we have run:

Tom Silverman’s New Music Model by BJ Jansen

You Don’t Have to Market Your Music by Todd Dunnigan of Roaming Royalty

Money Grows On Tees…Not Trees by Adam Hoek

iPhone Apps As Marketing Tools by Steve Klein of Sound Around

How To Really Get Your Music on Blogs by Zach Frmmel

Here are some of the results from those posts:

Adam wrote me to let me know that Wordans.com is giving him a lifetime 15% discount code for his merch after they got wind of the article. Check out this article on his site to learn more.

Todd’s guest post was the 1st he’s ever written. He let me know that within 2 days of the article going live he had 2,577%. That’s a nice traffic boost, eh. Damn right it is!

As for my site. The traffic remained steady. I didn’t lose any readers because I stopped writing for a few days. In fact, I gained some new readers who were friends and followers of the guest authors. It also gave me time to work on other projects, like the new version of BandWPThemes that should be ready for non-members next week or start the NME Blueprint pre-production.

Others Stuff With OPA

Duncan Freeman, the guy behind BandMetrics and Indie Music Tech announced on his blog that he is now accepting guest posts due to some of the noise I have been making to increase the popularity of this promotional method. If you have a music tech startup, head over and tell Duncan I sent you. But your article better kick a$$ and add some value to his readers.

Of course you know I try and do everything that I tell you guys as far as marketing strategies. So here are some of the posts I have written in the last week:

What To Do Now?

1. Find your audience. Who are your fans and where do they hang out?

2. Befriend the site owners. Add value to them.

3. Get out and make something happen.

4. Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Holler back. I just got a ton of new video studio gear, so I’m off to put all this together. New lighting, new backdrops, cameras, mics and more. Hell yea this is a rock star life!

-G-Ro

top image by Ed Yourdon

You Don’t Have to Market Your Music

Posted on 08 July 2010 by gregrollett

Today I have a guest post from another BandWPThemes member Todd Dunnigan of Roaming Royalty. Todd has been one of the best action takers I have seen in the indie space. Over the last few weeks he went from knowing nothing about WordPress to getting his new site up, taking part in blogging contests over at Ariel Hyatt’s site and today writing a guest post for the GYRS community. Below is what he sent over!

You Don’t Have to Market Your Music (Unless You Want to Succeed)

Roaming Royalty - Marketing Your Music

I’ve lived this feeling dozens of times, and comments I read on other music marketing blogs tell me I’m not alone. It’s the feeling I get when I’m just about to hit ‘send’ to e-mail out another newsletter, the feeling I get when I’m working really hard on some goofy promo video instead of a song, or the feeling I have when I’ve stayed up all night searching internet portals through which I can promote my band.

It’s the feeling that I wouldn’t have to do all this stuff if my music was good enough. Music marketing is actually quite enjoyable ’cause in the end it’s really all about finding and connecting with other people who dig the same things you do, but sometimes a huge marketing effort leaves me and many others feeling kind of inadequate, like, why doesn’t my shit just blow up on it’s own?

A Reality Check

Metallica, Radiohead, Rush… we can probably all think of an band or artist who has legions of devoted fans based pretty much solely on the music. Thom Yorke and Geddy Lee don’t do silly stuff for a viral video, or tell you to sign their e-mail list on the way out of the show. That being said, those guys do work hard at staying connected to fans. The bad news is, we don’t all get to be Phish. A remarkably small percentage of us will see our basement jams morph into a stadium packing cultural phenomenon. The rest of us have to live with the fact that people won’t magically find us just because we are awesome, granted, it happens, but realistically? Probably not to me and my band, and it’s not your best move to bank on that happening to you and your band.

Marketing Is Whoring?

Here are some quotes about clever marketing ideas from the comments section after an article about promoting yourself at DIY Musician

“I just can not get over the feeling of taking advantage of people, for example offering some meaningless/arbitrary reward for fan loyalty (akin to whoring yourself out) doesn’t sit well with me.”

“Me personally I think id ask Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, what they would think of this sort of behavior and they probably would say leave that up to the PR and Marketing guys who already lost their souls but if you have to DIY (do it yourself) practice your craft and be true to yourself.”

“In a nutshell, it’s degrading to musicians to have to continually ‘gimmick’ their way into people’s ears, when the music should be reward enough to keep them coming back.”

The Problem With That Attitude

If you see connecting with your fans as a ‘marketing gimmick‘ you are probably doomed to failure. In the end this is about using modern tools to achieve something that people have actively wanted since time began, and that’s to find others with common interests and connect with them. One reader lamented “rarely do I hear discussion about the importance of the song writing or emotional connection through the music.”

Anytime you’re griping about a lack of anything, you’re missing a golden opportunity. If there is a lack of discussion, then start the discussion, lead everyone to your website for the discussion, and while they are there discussing it, make sure people know you write some of this awesome music everyone is discussing. Is that a marketing gimmick or is it connecting with like minds? Both really, but no one got taken advantage of and no one sold their souls. If you did it right people went away feeing they got something of value.

Being Multi-Faceted

If you came up in a punk/indie or metal type scene, bands that appear to be over-hyped are generally viewed kinda suspiciously, I feel that, but this is not over-hyping. It’s actually an opportunity to use the other things that you are already interested in to gain listeners and hopefully customers. Let’s be real, with so many bands out there is not that unique of a thing to be a rock star anymore, but I know I’m going to be putting my other interests together so I can be something like a martial artist/carpenter/RV traveler/family man/swimmer/businessman/rock star. Now that’s more interesting, and ‘marketing’ is really just finding ways to connect with other people who like those things too. It shouldn’t be a pain, it should be fun.

This post was written by Todd Dunnigan from Roaming Royalty. Go check out their music and join their email list to hear more about things happening with their band.

If you are really looking to make an impact online, consider picking up BandWPThemes.

Money Grows On Tees…Not Trees!

Posted on 06 July 2010 by gregrollett

Today we have another guest post from BandWPThemes member and Australian pop/rock artist Adam Hoek. Adam is really doing some great things on the DIY tip and today he chats about getting custom merch at no cost upfront. Adam breaks down the process with Wordans, and there are many alternatives such as Audiolife that can do similar dropshipping and print and demand services.

8 easy steps to getting your music merch off the ground and into the crowd.

You gotta spend money to make money. Thats what they all say, but I’m coming to you today to tell you that they may be wrong.

Today Im going to help you through a system to make money while you sleep, hell it will even make money while your awake!

Bands need merch, merch sales are the easiest way for a musician to make money today. With CD sales dropping its better to go it Diddy style and expand your business. You’ve already got your mailing list set up. So now its time to give those subscribers what they want. Awesome t-shirts!

I’ve gone through all of the stress and failures (building a screen press and printing my own shirts) for you, all you have to do is follow these steps and you will be well on your way to what ever your dream is.

Step 1. Make an account at Wordans.com

I don’t work for Wordans, they work for me now. I tell them what I need and they get it done. I didn’t sign my soul away to get this, all I did was get an account. This is seriously the best Online t-shirt distributer I’ve ever seen. Very easy to work with and its all FREE!

Step 2. Open an online store.

It’s really that easy. Just click the button and BOOM you’re a millionaire, well not yet, but nearly!

Step 3. Make some designs

Here is the part that may hang you up. Maybe you don’t have awesome design skills. If you do, Great! If you don’t, Great as well! Why? Because now I will share yet another world with you. The world of get-other-people-to-do-your-stuff-for-you. Otherwise known as GOPTDYSFY or Outsourcing.

Outsourcing could actually cost you money, but it doesn’t have to! Here is how to get free awesome designs.

Ask around, I bet you know a few people who can draw some seriously awesome unicorns. You just need to ask them “Hey can you draw a unicorn for me?” If they say yes, put that magic on paper. You now have a rocking Unicorn Tshirt.

If they say no. Don’t worry. There is still an option. Luckily for you, you are a musician, which hopefully means, you have an audience. Now is the time to start a competition for your listeners. Ask for submissions, the winner wins their design on a t-shirt and gets some free music from you! Heck yeah! If you go this way, let me know. Coz I want to submit some stuff myself. I love free t-shirts and music!

Step 4. Upload

It is best to upload your design as a PNG. This magical format was invented by a snow dragon and allows you to have transparencies in your image to let the color of the tshirt shine through!

Also try to make your images as close to 5MB as possible, this will allow for best prints. You can do this trough cropping and resizing your image.

Put your design into a category. I always put mine in music with sub category rockstar, because..thats just how I roll. But maybe you can put yours in Hobbies with sub category Fishing. Im sure you can come up with something better though.

Give it a name and some relevant tags and start making a shirt

Step 5. Create a product

music marketing with tee shirtsIt will take 24 hours for your designs to be approved. They need to make sure you didnít upload an image of a black hole. This, when printed may cause the universe to get swallowed up. And I don’t care if that’s your evil plan, Wordans just wont let it happen. So go do your evil elsewhere.

In the mean time, go ahead and play around with the designs already in the system. You can browse by category or search for designs. Why don’t you search for “Big A“ and see what you come up with? OH, OH, OH whats that? A freaking sweet Trippy colored A you say, yeah that one is mine. Go ahead and put it on a shirt.

You can resize and rotate that sweet design and place it however you want.

Step 6. Submit

How to sell your music merchandise

This is where the money is! So pay attention! First you have to name your product. Don’t name it something lame, name it something awesome so that people enjoy just looking at the names of your shirts. Call the shirt Geoff or something crazy like “ILovePancakesInMyBelly.” Fun right!

Ok, now its money time. Here you get to set your commissions on the T-shirt. I recommend setting it at $5. This means you will make 5 dollars every time you sell this shirt. You can set your commission to $100 if you really want, but good luck selling the shirt!

Step 7. My Products Page

Now go over to the “My Products Page” from the side bar and put your shirt in a category. You may have to make one first. Just click the blue text next to the Category box.

Generally speaking your category will be Mens or Ladies but you can also catagorize by theme, such as FanSubmited or MonkeySlappingMothers, whatever you find useful.

Step 8. Advertise

You are pretty much done now. You own a t-shirt company. All you have to do is jump on myfacetwit (Myspace ,Facebook + Twitter) and spread the word! If no one buys a shirt, its no problem. Because so far it hasn’t cost you a dollar! And you can upload unlimited designs!

Eventually someone has to buy one right?

Your designs can also go into the public database. Like my Big A design. This way when someone buys a shirt with my design on it I make 2 dollars. Not bad for not doing anything!

You can also Customize the look of your shop, which you should do! Make it match your other stuff.

You can visit my shop here http://adamhoek.wordans.com/eu/my/boutique Go have a look and tell me which design is your favorite!

This post was written by ADAMHOEK. Adam is an indie pop/rock Australian musician making music in Holland. He has over 50 minutes of FREE downloadable music for you too! Go check out what he’s doing over at www.adamhoek.com.

iPhone Applications As Marketing Tools For Musicians

Posted on 30 June 2010 by gregrollett

Today we have a very special guest post from Steve Klein from Sound Around, a DIY iPhone Application Builder for musicians. I asked Steve to write up a guest post about the iPhone market and why artists should consider going mobile. Yesterday, we shared a video on how to use the new iPhone 4 to create content and today you get a glimpse of how fans are interacting with the applications.

When choosing a provider to build your application, do your homework, test the platforms and more importantly check out the apps they have in the app store and see if you like the look, feel, style and usability of the applications.

With over 75 million iPhones and iPod Touches out there, iPhone Apps are quickly becoming an important marketing tool in any band’s arsenal. As internet usage transitions from desktop or laptop computers towards mobile devices, this fact becomes increasingly clear. In an industry where you will live or die by your ability to engage your fanbase, it’s imperative that you are available and accessible to your fans wherever they are.

Smart phone applications (e.g. iPhone Apps/Android Apps) are the perfect platform to do this for two reasons.

  1. They are capable of integrating the rich media experiences and other services like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare that fans LOVE (and arguably, require).
  2. They are part of an extremely intimate object.

Think about it — there are probably only 3 things you take EVERYWHERE with you: your keys, your wallet and your PHONE. Having your own iPhone or Android App makes you accessible to fans whenever, wherever. And the technology exists such that every band has the ability to get their own custom iPhone App. Maybe they don’t have the money to hire a private developer (read: T-Pain/Smule App), but everyone can at least afford Sound Around or MobBase (disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Sound Around).

iPhones have the ability to integrate some amazing services through iPhone Apps. There will soon be a day when band Apps integrate Foursquare check-ins, concerts that connect to Facebook events, merch stores and ticket sales with actual mobile-optimized web pages that don’t produce the shitty experience that currently exists. Just imagine, real-time video streams of a band from their smart phone to all of their fan’s smart phones. Fans could all but be actually present at band practices or listen in on tour van ramblings. The point is — smart phone Apps will be the next medium through which the bulk of artist-fan engagement occurs. Get on them early — learn how to capitalize on them now so that you will be successful when they reach their full potential.

We’re Sound Around . It’s a platform for you to create and manage your own iPhone App. There are zero set-up fees, it’s $14 per month and takes 20 minutes to get your content uploaded. And that’s it – you’re done. Your own custom iPhone Application will be available for your fans to download once Apple approves your App. Yes, there are other companies that do the same thing…but it’s in your best interest to side with us.

We do all of the development in-house and have plans for some amazing new features to roll out over the next year. And yes, we will be available on Android within the year. We’re focused on musicians–if there’s one goal for our product, it’s to dramatically increase an artist’s ability to interact and engage directly with their fans. I’ll let a few of our beta testers do some of the talking for me:

“The Sound Around app is an exceptional service. After talking with the Sound Around creators, I could tell they were all about getting the maximum amount of content to their customers. And they’ve done a great job of providing my band the tools to put as much content out to our fans as we want. Content is available instanteously after uploading, giving Sound Around an “organic” feeling. The Sound Around app is extremely intuitive to use, so it only took minutes before a good amount of our band’s content was available. And even with being this intuitive, it still manages to create a level of customization so I feel my band’s app is different from any other band’s app that will be found on the App Store.” – Ben Pritchett of River City Ransom

“The 2010 music industry is all about impressions, and communicating directly with your fans. Sound Around is a GREAT asset for bands and labels to do to do this It functions like a blog, you just upload your content at the specs outlined and it’s there. The service is great when you don’t have the budget or time to develop this technology on your own. It’s really easy to use, and the technical support is great. SideOneDummy will continue to use Sound Around to develop this technology for our bands.” – Johnny B of SideOneDummy Records

Here is a video that explains more:

Check out Sound Around today.

Have you looked into building an iPhone app for your band yet? Why or why not? Let’s holler holler like Ja Rule in the comments.

*Update* The 3 most interesting comments will win 3 free months of service with Sound Around. So holla, holla and save them dollas, dollas.

Nobody Cares About Your Music

Posted on 28 April 2010 by gregrollett

Note from Greg: The following is a guest post by Jared Kessler. We had an awesome phone convo early this week and I asked him to write about the changes he made in his mentality that caused a shift in his music business and in himself. Below is the madness that he sent back. I really believe in what he is saying, that we were all put here to do certain things and become better people by helping others. It all comes down to being yourself and doing what you believe in.

I would def check out his site, his new album Flight and signup to his newsletter and see how you can mold some of his techniques into your own business. If you are interested in sharing your opinion with the GYRS community, please shoot me an email.

jaredkesslerI can go to just about any musician’s site today and they’ll list all of their musical accomplishments, what shows their playing, how you can buy their CD and blah, blah, blah.

Who cares!

  • No one wants to know about you, until you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
  • What do they feel?
  • What are they as human beings dealing with today?
  • Does your music solve their problem?
  • Do you know their deepest fears, hopes aspirations?
  • How about how they got to your site?
  • How long did they spend there?
  • Did they buy your music or just browse?
  • Why didn’t they buy your music?
  • Do they like you or do they LOVE you?
  • Did they sign up on your mailing list?
  • Do they hate you or are they kind of unsure how they feel about you?
  • Do they think the lead singer is hot, or do they think they just fell off the ugly
  • branch?
  • Do they know what you love?
  • Do they know what you hate?
  • Do they know what you stand for?
  • What about what you stand against?

Listen, you have to understand that most people today aren’t just buying music. They’re buying YOU! Tired of the same shit we hear on the news, the radio, our parents telling us when we were kids, “hey you need to get a job…” it just seems like we have a short attention span for the boring and mundane. Working a job that we’re miserable at or looking to rule the world with this new business venture that we think will make us millions of dollars… the last thing anyone wants to know about is how great our music is and everything about us us us!

Why?

Because today, it’s not just about creating millions of dollars, creating great music or trying to “make it.” Why? Because great music is everywhere and
you don’t need to make the millions! It’s about finding who you are, what you’re here to do on the planet, then living that to the core of your being and
aligning your deepest gladness with the worlds deepest hunger.

It’s about living and breathing YOU to the 100% in everything you do! That people love – and that’s more than just creating great music. It’s about leaving your mark on the world!

Being Authentic.

As I said before, anyone can create an album. Shit… even if you have no talent in the world, you can pay a top-notch producer a million bucks and boom… you have a great album! However… the thing is, not everyone can do what you do. Why?

You’re unique. You’re you. You’ve got a way to make things sound like no one else can, doing things no one else can do in the way you do it. The thing
is what do you do with it? You start putting it out there, but not just the music… everything that surrounds it. Not tomorrow. Not until you’re parents give you the right kind of gear, equipment or until you qualify for the next credit limit on your Visa or some big business deal comes through… You do it now, now, now!

Can You Fuck Up?

Sure you can. Do you need to fuck up or be the “starving artist” as a rite of passage to enter you into the “I need to earn the respect of my peers and pay my dues” type of mentality?

Uhmm… well I just released my fifth album, lived in a peace of shit apartment a number of years ago working at about 30 different “survival
jobs” to fund what I do, living off of credit cards to fund my music career earlier on and… paid my dues more than most people have so… basically, I’m here to say who gives a shit?!?! I used to think the harder I worked, the more I sacrificed and the more shows I booked… the more I would get. No true!

It’s quite the contrary.

The more you find out who you are, why you are here on the planet and what you must do, will die if you don’t do it… the more things happen and the more people form a deeper connection with who you are, NOT what you have to sell them (and then they sell themselves – without you telling them how great you are).

It’s You’re Inner Voice. Don’t shut it up!

Seriously. Sometimes it’s screaming to tell you to do things. Yet you don’t listen. You tell it, “no I don’t want to do that,” constantly thinking there is a
better/easier way. That better way is listening to that voice inside your head you keep ignoring. Until recently, I was going a certain direction with my book, eBook, music, etc. What happened was, people I think looked at my site a few months back and thought, “Oh this is cool.” But recently I thought, “I don’t want people to think… oh this is cool.” That’s fucking lame! Since recently having these visions I thought, “you know… I’m going to take down that nice little veil I put up where I make myself look and sound a lot better than who I really am. I’m tired of people that are just blasé about the things that I’m passionate about!”

So I reinvented myself.

Took the bullshit curtain down and started to get real with people because… that’s who I am to my core. And when I did that, people were fired up! More importantly, I was fired up – and people could see that. Now, I’m not going to lie, I was scared shitless, but I didn’t care. I had nothing to lose and finally, people seemed to love the honest, authentic and creative person that I am at my core. Those that don’t… leave (which is perfect). Those that do… stay and scream, “Jared your f—– brilliant!”

At the same time, I started to find those people that resonated with me the most. These people were individuals that I met at the jobs I worked to fund my own music. It was then that I realized that there is like this lost little niche of people who listen to music to just “escape” or UNnumb the work day or just listen to music while they work to get stuff done. It didn’t have to be something at the forefront that I drive into people’s heads, I just created it because the need was there and I wanted to help them. And so that’s what I started to do.

Escaping Work To Take Flight.

Since I recently made these changes, I can’t tell you how many people are fired up about my new site and buying a lot of my stuff. Not only that, more
people are buying multiple things I have because they love who I am… they love what I do. They’re more active and involved in what I’ve created for them and those that aren’t… they can fuck the hell off! I’m just kidding! But seriously…

It’s only because I constantly choose to listen to that inner voice inside my head of what I should or shouldn’t do. Once you tell it to shut up, you’re
doomed.

Don’t.

Take a stand in who you are and who you are not and if people don’t like you for you, hey that’s perfect – ten other people will. If not… hey that’s
cool too. Just keep tweaking things until you find those people who love you and keep finding more of them – creating little offshoots of the products you
already have. Then just start to find out why they buy from you, what it is they love about you, what their biggest fears are and on you go (that’s your
marketing campaign).

So if anything, stop playing things safe or just putting out music or doing the same ole bullshit shows (getting paid next to nothing at bars or cafes) or
whatever it is that you do. This world doesn’t need more people doing the same ole crap and God knows we don’t need anymore “starving artists!”

What we do need are more unique and authentic souls out there who found out who and what they are here to do on the planet and have a passion and aliveness to them that just cannot be matched or duplicated. And that happens, when you start being you, not some lame brain “rock star”
comatose on drugs and acting really fucking cooler than they know they are because hey… that is what everyone does.

Who cares! We just want you to be you. No imitations, fakes, or people that are cooler than cool. Just you being you – nothing else.

Jared Matthew Kessler is a writer and musician who creates unique products and services to help individuals thrive – both inside and outside of the workplace. To find out more about his new album, ”Flight” please visit his web site http://ww w.jaredmatthewkessler.com today.

Heck, you can even go crazy and sign up on his free newsletter to get some cool rocking stuff to give you the kick in the ass you need. Tweedle Dee Me: @jaredkessler